eMOLT Update 2023-08-11

This week is a busy one for the eMOLT team. George put in almost 1000 miles of driving to install eMOLT systems along the coast of Maine with Andrew, Chris, Ryan, and Tessa from the Maine Lobster Institute.

Andrew wiring on F/V Every Last Dollar Chris and Ryan put a probe in a lobster trap

Dominic and George on the F/V Tyrant Sam brings the skiff around

How many scientists does it take…

How many scientists does it take to install an eMOLT system? Sometimes that depends on how many other electronics are already installed in the wheelhouse

Erin also got out into the field helping to deploy some dissolved oxygen loggers and working with Huanxin to upgrade the deckbox on the F/V Lina Rose.

On the modeling side, we also got a notification from Qichun Xu at the Univeristy of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology that the NECOFS group has begun to incorporate realtime eMOLT data into their forecast model! The plot below shows the first eMOLT points that were assimilated on 2023-08-08

NECOFS eMOLT assimilation

Acknowledgements

Thank you to captains Dustin, Sam, Dominic, Jim, and Jamien who graciously made time for us to work on their boats this week. Welcome aboard! We appreciate your willingness to participate in the program.

Thanks also to the Chen lab at SMAST for their efforts to incorporate eMOLT data into the NECOFS forecasts. It’s all well and good to collect the data, but it’s really great to see it being used!

Forecasts

NECOFS Bottom Temperature Forecast

NECOFS forecast

Doppio Bottom Temperature Forecast

Doppio forecast

Other News

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries recently released a report titled “Estimating the Costs of Using On-Demand Gear in Massachusetts Lobster Fisheries”. The report indicates that “operational time costs and resulting decreases in catch revenue associated with the decreased efficiency of the type of on-demand gear we used to parameterize the model could be significant, reaching a similar level of cost to the acquisition of the gear itself for some classes of lobster fishing vessel.”

Announcements

  • The Woods Hole Science Stroll is back on this year! Tomorrow (August 12), we welcome anyone who’s interested in meeting scientists and learning more about the work we do to come down to Water Street in Woods Hole. In addition to the Cooperative Research Branch staff many of you already know and other NOAA Fisheries scientists, staff from other scientific organizations will be around giving demos of hardware and explaining their research. We’d be happy to have you stop in! Participating organizations include:
    • Marine Biological Laboratory
    • US Coast Guard
    • US Geological Survey
    • Woodwell Climate Research Center
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution …and more!

All the best, George and JiM